


I See Most Clearly in the Dark

by cacology



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Humor, M/M, Oblivious!Sherlock - Freeform, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 08:05:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/897920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cacology/pseuds/cacology
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock is inexplicably fascinated by the curve of John's lips. He seeks an explanation anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I See Most Clearly in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying something different, so please bear with me. If you don't like this by the end, feel free to yell at me!

Sherlock is inexplicably fascinated by the curve of John's lips. They're not _bad_ , as far as lips go, but they're on the thin side. And experimental evidence thus far indicates Sherlock prefers full lips on his partners. He need only recall A7.2 of **_A Case Study of S. Holmes on the Subject of Concupiscent Gratification_** (2003): _Bow lips preferred for genital (Cross-reference: fellatio) and nongenital (Cross-reference: osculation) oral gratification. Statistical significance of lower lip protrusion (Cross-reference: pout) TBD at this time._

Yet, he can't stop staring.

SHSHSH

Sherlock's initial hypothesis involves Angelo's candle. Saccadic eye movements focus on moving stimuli. Factor in auditory cues and a flickering flame, and it's merely a normal consequence of evolutionary preprogramming. 

John is still waiting for a response, unaware of his theories, so Sherlock explains away his staring by noting that John woke up twenty-seven minutes early, as indicated by the state of his five o'clock shadow. It's specious correlation at best, but John accepts this with a mix of amusement and awe.

 _Only because he trusts you._ Sherlock pushes back his _pasta e fagioli_ , even less hungry than before. Deception had its time and place, but one of those was _not to John unless_ ** _absolutely_** _necessary._ So why didn't he admit his embouchural fascination and avail himself to John's conjecture this time?

The data was insufficient; that must be it.

SHSHSH

_It's not the candlelight_ , Sherlock concludes over Thai takeaway. 

 _It's not ingestion of tomatoes,_ he concludes at the scene of a pawnshop "robbery." _It's not the dewpoint_ , he concludes on a rare day of high pressure. _It's not even A3 (aural arousal by sesquipedalian words)_ , he concludes when John stumbles back, babbling rather adorably and reeking of Guinness, after Sarah ends things. _Surely, something substantial is responsible for overturning Axiom 3..._  

Sherlock gets progressively better at covert staring but progressively worse at identifying concurrent external factors. So much worse that, after the thirteenth trial, he wonders if the statistical significance of his fixation correlates with John himself --

No, no, that's just not on. If he should become so... obsessed, loathe as he is to admit, about anything, certainly he'd fixate on the best. John is obviously an exceptionally attractive man (even if he doesn't know it), but his soft blue-grey eyes are far more exceptional than his lips. And while Sherlock has been drawn by them a time or two ( _or two hundred,_ his mind supplies unhelpfully), he has no urge to reach out and trace them as if to confirm that they're real. Sherlock knows John's real -- at times too good to be true, but ineffably genuine -- but he gets the strangest synaptic impulse to touch John's mouth sometimes, just to make sure.

No, his fingers are irrational, but the rest of him needn't be. There is an alternate explanation to be found. The situation simply requires a more... active approach.

SHSHSH

Since Sherlock can name the precise pinkness of John's lips with his eyes closed (an image that keeps invading his memory at inappropriate occasions), he starts with that. Maybe there's something inherently fascinating about the colour. He hassles/bribes/blackmails John into going undercover at the salon owned by the missing Frances Carfax (fortuitous experimental conditions, really, especially for such a shoddily disguised murder).

When John bursts out of the shop with caked foundation, shiny lips and a death glare, an anomaly occurs. _Lip gloss is sticky and foul on both sexes_ , Sherlock recites silently from A39, but John's lips are oh so shiny and perfectly pink, and surely there must be some aerosol additive in the gloss, because Sherlock, who trained his libido by every thinkable reinforcement, now just wants to --

"You signed me up for a _beauty queen makeover_?"

 _A39, A39, A39,_ Sherlock chants in his head. It takes him 5.2 more seconds to stop staring and resume breathing. 

He sticks to positive controls after that.

SHSHSH

Sherlock maps out the curve of John's smile from a CCTV still (courtesy of Mycroft's server and his own proficiency in backdoors). The results are both surprising and unsurprising: John's lips are practically a limaçon. 

He exhales in relief. Of _course_! John is exceptional in even the geometric sense. Isn't that what Sherlock was trying to puzzle out all along? He'd just recognised the unique contour. Now _that_ obsession _'s_ over and done with, isn't it. 

But his conclusion still seems... inconclusive, somehow. It's not long before Sherlock realises why -- surely, Mary's lips fit _logistic_ curves? It's a matter of additional regression analysis, but he can already picture it: _How can you abide kissing with only two natural points of tangency?_ he shall question John over dinner _. That's right, there's your proof you don't belong with her._ Rubbing his hands with glee, he searches for a suitable side view of Mary. 

Not three minutes later, he finds one in what can only be the coffee shop at Park and Stoney. She is ordering at the counter, but it's a face in the background that arrests him. _John_. His smile is brighter than Sherlock has seen him show Mary before. Perhaps because John's accustomed to disciplining his emotions and assumed no one would be watching (weak assumption). Revision: John's smile is brighter than Sherlock has seen him show _anyone_ before. Is this how John looks utterly happy and at ease?

In that moment, he loathes Mary more than ever. "John was happy with me first," Sherlock argues with the empty flat. "He could be at ease, too, whenever the criminals in the greater London area decide to take the day off!" But his treacherous mind lets another question sink in: _As happy as she looks with him?_ He sees no assailant, no weapon, no entry point on his person (probably no tissue damage, either if a doctor were consulted). All the same, Sherlock feels a hot stab in his ribcage so sharp he wonders if for the first time his eyes are fooling him.

He doesn't finish his calculations, after all. 

SHSHSH 

When Lestrade calls them out to a double homicide NNE of Knightsbridge at 21:22, a crime that has the police force stumped, Sherlock is quietly grateful for a diversion. Unfortunately, the case is an open-and-shut case of an Oedipus complex gone wrong, and he says so. Really. It's ridiculous how some people can't _see_ what's right in front of their faces...

On the cab ride home, Sherlock notes that the pain from earlier has dulled to a cool ache. It's dug down into his stomach, though, and he suspects it'll be there to stay.

It's only John's chuckle brings him back to reality. "Trying to draw hearts, now? Didn't reckon you were that type of bloke."

Despite the low light, Sherlock sees with alarming clarity the shapes he's added to the margins of his notes. _They're_ ** _limaçons_** _,_ he doesn't say, as John's mouth splits in a winsome grin.

Because, he _still_ can't stop staring.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and concrit welcome.


End file.
